Dell: Managed Services Partnerships Holding Steady

During a phone conversation with me this morning, Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis said the company has roughly 131 certified managed services partners. In my mind: That’s not exactly a huge number — especially for a company of Dell’s size. But I think Dell is putting a lot of channel emphasis on a slightly different MSP and VAR effort that involves Symantec. Here are the details.

Davis briefed me this morning following Dell’s earnings release from yesterday. Wall Street is nervous about apparent soft results — Dell shares are down 10 percent today (Nov. 20, 2009) — but Davis says Dell’s overall channel program is in good shape. More thoughts soon over on TheVARguy.com.

In the meantime, some updates on Dell’s managed services efforts. Compared to this time last year, Dell has roughly the same number of certified managed services partners, Davis says. The figure dropped a bit in early 2009 but has since rebounded as Dell’s Silverback team on-boarded more VARs and MSPs.

To be frank, Dell has been really quiet in recent months in terms of its managed services channel strategy. Yes, the company has been busy with a direct managed services push. But I’m also hoping to hear if Dell is marching forward with integration between Silverback and Everdream and maybe even MessageOne.

Still, Dell has been busy. Recent efforts include the Dell Management Console, powered by Symantec. According to Dell:

Dell Management Console, powered by Symantec, is a systems management solution designed to provide a central console offering features from basic hardware management to advanced enterprise functionality. DMC provides a single view into the deployment, inventory, monitoring, and updating of your IT infrastructure – including servers, storage, desktops, notebooks, network devices, printers, and other non-Dell devices – and creates a foundation for more advanced management functionality.

I hope to speak with Dell’s Peter Klanian (a Silverback veteran) about how the Management Console fits in with Dell’s other management offerings. I will follow-up with a blog post as soon as Klanian and I connect. In the meantime, more than 1,000 users have registered to master the console, according to Davis.

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